Method and system for displaying and searching information in an electronic document

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides an electronic document review method comprising the steps of displaying at least a first document section of said document in a first display window, displaying at least a second document section of said document in a second display window, and arranging said second window so that said second window is arranged within the border of the first window. Such a method allows for efficient review of electronic documents thereby enabling a user to reduce the amount of time the user spends for reviewing an electronic document. The invention also provides an electronic document review system.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE OF RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present patent application hereby incorporates by reference thepatent application identified by U.S. Ser. No. 61/763,313, which wasfiled on Feb. 11, 2013, and titled “Electronic Document Review Methodand System.”

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method for reviewing an electronicdocument and a computer system for reviewing an electronic document.

BACKGROUND

User interfaces, such as graphical user interfaces (GUIs), for browsingelectronic documents such as web pages and PDF documents are well known.Such known user interfaces enable the user to review an electronicdocument on a computer system such as a desktop computer device, mobilecomputer device and the like by scrolling through the document throughuser input.

The scrolling operation allows the user to review different segments ofthe document, such as the different pages. The scrolling operation is,for example, conducted by keystroke, mouse input or user touch input.The scrolling operation can also be conducted by touchless input, suchas touchless user movements, eye-tracking and/or voice command; in casethe computing system has such touchless functionality.

Irrespective of the scrolling operation, the known document reviewmethods do not provide satisfactory document review experience uponreviewing “long documents”, e.g. documents with many pages, such as abook. Some long documents, such as a website, might not have severaldistinct pages. These are nevertheless still considered as longdocuments in the sense that the user has to scroll through many lines oftext and/or media content (images, video etc) to review the entiredocument. Thus, in common for all “long documents” is the fact that theentire content of the document cannot be shown at once in a readablemanner in a document display window. The user must scroll (browse)through the document in order to review the entire content thereof.

The term electronic document encompasses any type of electronic documentdata format, including but not limited to word processing documents,spreadsheets, presentations, images, maps, emails, websites etc. Typicalexamples of electronic documents data formats include Adobe PDF®documents, Microsoft WORD® documents, website in HTML or the like.

Known user interfaces provide the well-known feature of scrolling pagesby providing “page up” and “page down” functionality, thereby enablingthe user to quickly jump to the desired page. However, it is evidentthat in case of a long document, e.g. a document with two pages or more,this does not provide a user friendly solution for the user who has toswitch between different passages of the document to obtain a deeperunderstanding of the teaching thereof.

The aforementioned limitations in the prior art have been addressed by asearch functionality, which allows the user to search for particularterms within a document. Usually the user inputs the search term in aspecifically foreseen search field and upon confirming the term, asearch is conducted for the inputted search term within the document.The user is then directed to the text passage that includes the searchterm. Quick browsing between the different passages showing the searchterm is enabled by providing “next” and “previous” icons, therebyskipping those text passages that do not contain the relevant searchterm.

Thus, the user can skip several pages at once. This approach is,however, also not satisfactory. The user of this known method isdistracted in his document review process due to the requirement of“jumping” to the different sections of the document. Therefore, the usermight review the entire document quicker, but it does not necessarilyenable the user to understand the teaching of the document in a moreefficient manner. The frequent “jumping” between different text passageseventually negatively effects a user's concentration.

To overcome the above-mentioned limitations of the known search method,it has been suggested to display selectable thumbnail images of pages ofthe document in a side panel. This allows the user to directly jump to aparticular page. This method of reviewing a document, however, has thesame drawback as mentioned earlier, i.e. the user is distracted by thejumping action between different pages and/or sections of the document.This becomes even more critical on a mobile device which has a limitedscreen size and thus makes it even more difficult for the user tomaintain a good overview of the content of the document.

It is evident that for the review of complex documents, for examplelegal documents such as design patents, utility models, (utility) patentapplications, and/or patent specifications (collectively patentdocuments or patents) any distraction is detrimental for an efficientreview of the document by the user. The same holds true for the reviewof any other legal document, such as a legal agreement or other complexdocuments, such as complex scientific publications, financial annualreports and the like.

Moreover, the review of long documents through the known methods usuallyhas the user spend a significant amount of time using a computer system,thereby negatively influencing the energy consumption of the system. Itis moreover not unusual that the dissatisfied user of the prior artmethods and systems eventually prints out the document in order toreview the document in paper form. This not only has a negative effecton the environment due to the increased consumption of paper, but alsoon the toner consumption of the printer, the wear of the printer etc.Thus, in providing an efficient electronic document review method, alsosuch environmental technology problems could be mitigated.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronicdocument, preferably patent document, review method and an electronic,preferably patent, document computer review system that overcomes thedrawbacks of the known methods and systems and which allows a costefficient review of electronic documents. Moreover, the invention alsosets out to provide a computer non-transitory readable medium.

This is achieved by providing an electronic, preferably patent, documentreview method for reviewing an electronic document by at least one user,said method comprising the steps of displaying at least a first documentsection of said document in a first display window and displaying atleast a second document section of the document in a second displaywindow, and arranging said second window so that said second window iswithin the border of the first window. The steps of displaying the firstdocument section and the second document section can be accomplished bypassing signals to a monitor. In one embodiment, the steps of displayingincludes passing a suitable programming language, such as HTML code tothe processor, which then generates and passes video signals to themonitor.

The second window preferably overlaps the first window and stays infront of the first window. The second window preferably covers only aportion of the first window, so that the first document section isvisible to the user at all times. The second display window ispreferably also re-sizeable in order to adapt its size as needed. Theuser of this method can thus view different sections of one and the sameelectronic document without having to change the content of the firstdisplay window the user is currently viewing. Hence, any negative effecton the user's concentration level is avoided. The first display windowcould, for example, be a browser window and the border within which thesecond window is arranged is thus for example the border of the browserwindow.

The inventive method enables the user to stay focused on at least afirst document section of a document, while simultaneously reviewing atleast a second document section of the same document. There is no needfor the user to browse away from the first document section displayed ina first display window to learn more about the content currentlydisplayed therein. The second window overlapping the first window allowsa close allocation of segments of interest, thus further adding inavoiding any negative effect on the user's concentration level. Thesecond window preferably only covers a portion of the first displaywindow. Thus, the second display window is preferably smaller in sizethan the first display window, thereby allowing the user to constantlyview a section of interest in the first display window. The firstdisplay window may also display further document sections of thedocument in addition to the first document section.

According to a preferred embodiment the method further comprises thesteps of providing search functionality within said second window anddisplaying said at least a second document section in response to saidsearch in said second display window. The search functionality enables asearch within the text of the document currently under review. Theresult of the search is displayed within the second display window, sothat the content displayed in the first window during the performance ofthe search is not altered. All search results of the search arepreferably displayed within said second window and can be furtheranalyzed within said second window.

Thus the second document section and any further document sectionretrieved in response to said search is/are displayed in said seconddisplay window. The second document section is preferably comprised ofseveral characters in addition to the search character used forperforming the search. Therefore not only the search characteritself—which could be a single word—is displayed as the second documentsection, but preferably additional characters so that the user alsounderstands the content within which the search character is disclosedin the document.

For example, the entire sentence within which the search character isdefined can be displayed as the second document section in the seconddisplay window. As a further example, it could be determined toinclude—in the second document section to be displayed—a specified setof characters that are disclosed before and after the found searchcharacter in the text of the document. For example, it could bedetermined to include the 10 characters before and after the foundsearch term. Any further document sections disclosing the searchcharacter can preferably be disclosed as further document sectionswithin the second display window in addition to said second documentsection. Thus, the user preferably searching for a term relating to whatis currently displayed in the first display window, can according tothis preferred embodiment obtain a complete understanding of the term ofinterest without browsing away from the first document section displayedin the first display window.

According to a further preferred embodiment the method comprisescreating at least one result window within the second display window anddisplaying said second document section within said result window. If inresponse to the search query more than one hit is obtained, each suchhit is preferably displayed within a separate result window within saidsecond display window. Thus, the second display window may includeseveral result windows each of which disclosing a document section. Itis thus possible to provide a quick overview and understanding of theterm subject to the search query. Any alterations in the second displaywindow leave the first display window unaffected so that the user canquickly and with high efficiency review and understand the firstdocument section displayed in the first window.

According to a further preferred embodiment, the method comprisesincreasing the size of the result window and, upon increasing the size,an increased number of characters of the total amount of characters ofthe second document section are displayed. The result window withincreased size can be displayed outside of the second display window inan enlarged result window so that the total amount of characters of thesecond document section is shown in the enlarged result window and theresult window within the second display window displays a first set ofcharacters of the total amount of characters. Also this embodiment hasthe advantage that the first document section shown in the first displaywindow is maintained and not altered. Thus, despite a user being able toselect a result window, no jumping away from the first document sectionor similar operation as known from the prior art is conducted in orderto present to the user more details of the text of interest as displayedwithin the result window.

According to a further preferred embodiment the method comprisesdisplaying a first set of characters of the total amount of charactersof said second document section in said result window in response tosaid search, wherein upon increasing the size of said result windowfurther characters of said total amount of characters of the seconddocument section are displayed within said result window. Displayingonly a portion of the second document section initially saves displayscreen space.

The user may choose to increase the size of the result window in orderto view even more characters of the second document section. The userpreferably interacts with the second display window and each of theresult windows displayed therein only in order to obtain a fullunderstanding of the document section of interest. Even if the resultwindow only shows a portion of the total characters of the seconddocument section displayed within the result window, the remainingcharacters can be viewed without browsing away from the first documentsection and preferably even without increasing the size of the seconddisplay window. Preferably only the result window needs to be resized,which may not have an influence on the size of the second displaywindow. If there are several result windows within the second displaywindow, each of the result windows may function as described above.

According to a preferred embodiment the method further comprises thesteps of transforming the result window into an annotation in responseto respective user input and adding said annotation to the firstdocument section displayed in the first display window. This preferredembodiment allows not only efficient review of the electronic document,but also a time saving approach to annotate the document under review.Preferably the user is provided with a commenting module, which allowsthe user to insert his personal comments within a result window. Therebyboth the second document section as well as user personal comments canbe added as an annotation simultaneously to the document.

According to another preferred embodiment the method comprises the stepof creating the second window as a floating window, preferably are-arrangeable floating window. Even if the user scrolls to a differentdocument section within the first display window, the second window willbe visible at all time. Enabling the second window to be re-arrangeablewithin the first display window provides the advantage that the user canalign the second window closely to a particular section of interestbeing displayed in the first document section.

In a further preferred embodiment, the method comprises the steps ofretrieving the first document section for display in the first window ina first data format and retrieving the second document section fordisplay in the second window in a second data format different from thefirst data format. The first data format can, as an example only, be inthe original format of the electronic document (e.g. PDF format). Thisis of particular importance in the legal field, where attorneys rely onofficial governmental copies only.

As an example, the first format could be the official PDF publication ofa patent from a patent office. In order to improve user reviewexperience by shortening the download time of the second documentsection, the second data format can be in a different format. It is, forexample, possible to retrieve the patent content in XML or HTML formatand display the second document section in XML or HTML format in orderto shorten the download time. This also solves the technical problem ofproviding short download times and also has a positive impact on userexperience.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide an electronicdocument computer review system for electronic document review thatovercomes the drawbacks of the known systems. Moreover, the inventionalso sets out to provide a computer non-transitory readable medium.These objects are achieved by providing a computer system and computerreadable medium as defined in the claims.

The object of providing an electronic document review system is achievedby a system as defined in the respective claims. According to apreferred embodiment of the review system, computer executable logic isprovided that is configured to establish re-sizing of the result windowand show an increased number of characters of the total amount ofcharacters of the second document section upon increasing its size. Theincreased result window can for example be arranged within the seconddisplay window or the system is configured such that the increasedresult window is re-sized outside of the second display window in anenlarged result window. Either way, the first document section displayedin the first display window remains unaffected so that any user actionin the second display window and/or (enlarged) result window does nothave any negative influence on the user's concentration level.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure will be described hereafter with reference to theattached drawings which are given as non-limiting examples only, inwhich;

FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of an example of computingsystem for implementing a system according to an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a screen shot of an interface for reviewing an electronicpatent document in accordance with an embodiment of the inventionshowing a second display window arranged within the borders of a firstdisplay window;

FIG. 3 is a screen shot of the interface according to FIG. 2 with searchresults displayed within the second display window in first and secondresult windows;

FIG. 4 is a screen shot of the interface according to FIG. 3 with are-sized first result window within said second display window;

FIG. 5 is a screen shot of the interface according to FIG. 4 with thesecond display re-arranged and an annotation added to the first displaywindow;

FIG. 6 is a screen shot of a further preferred embodiment of a methodand system of the invention;

FIGS. 7a and 7b show an alternative method of displaying the resultwindow;

FIG. 8 shows a further embodiment of displaying a re-sized resultwindow; and

FIGS. 9a to 9d show an interface of a further preferred embodiment ofthe document review system and method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

While the concepts of the present disclosure are susceptible to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific exemplary embodimentsthereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and willherein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, thatthere is no intent to limit the concepts of the present disclosure tothe particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is tocover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling withinthe scope of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates a computing system that may be used to implement asystem in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.Referring to FIG. 1, a computing system 10 is shown, including aprocessor 2 and a non-transitory computer readable medium 4, linked byway of high speed bus 6. Input and output devices are shown in the formof monitor 8, keyboard 11, mouse 12 and printer 13. Computing system 10in this example is connected via communications network 14, to a searchsystem 16 comprising search engine 17 and electronic document database18. The computing system 10 and/or the search system 16 may be loadedwith software to enable implementation of a method and system forfacilitating review of an electronic document. The electronic documentin this embodiment is for example a patent document that can beretrieved from the document database 18, following a patent search inthe search system 16. The electronic documents may be obtained from anyother source, however.

The processor 2 may be implemented as a single processor or multipleprocessors working together or independently to execute processorexecutable instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readablemedium 4 to implement the functionality described herein. Embodiments ofthe processor 2 may include a digital signal processor (DSP), a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a multi-core processor, anapplication specific integrated circuit, and combinations thereof. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium 4 can be implemented as RAM,ROM, flash memory or the like, and may take the form of a magneticdevice, optical device or the like. The non-transitory computer readablemedium 4 can be a single non-transitory computer readable medium, ormultiple non-transitory computer readable medium functioning logicallytogether or independently. The search system 16 may also include aprocessor (not shown) and a non-transitory computer readable medium (notshown), linked by way of high speed bus (not shown). The processor andthe non-transitory computer readable medium of the search system 16 maybe implemented in a similar manner as the processor 2 and thenon-transitory computer readable medium 4 discussed above.

Note that any computer hardware/software architecture may be utilised toimplement an embodiment of the present invention. The invention is notlimited to implementation by the type of computer architectureillustrated and described in relation to FIG. 1. For example, otherarrangements such as central mainframe/terminal architecture,client/server architecture or any other type of arrangement may beutilised to implement the present invention. In one arrangement, aplurality of network computers may be utilised to enable, for example, aplurality of users to access the system from their own computerterminals. The network may be any network, the Internet for example.

It follows that a computing system 10 to implement a document reviewmethod according to an embodiment of the invention is well known to theskilled person in the art.

In a different arrangement a notebook computer, tablet computer, eBookreader device, a smart phone device or any similar device can be used.

According to this preferred embodiment the system comprises a userinterface via which one or more users may review a plurality ofelectronic documents available for review via the user interface. Inthis example, the user interface may include appropriate softwareaccessible and controllable by way of monitor 8, screen 1, keyboard 11and mouse 12. The user interface may be accessible via a plurality ofpersonal computers, for example, so that plurality of users can accessthe user interface. In one embodiment, the user interface may beprovided via Internet access to a server computer arranged to servepages forming part of the user interface.

In a further embodiment the user interface can be part of softwarepackage stored locally on a computer, similar to ADOBE® ACROBAT® 9STANDARD Software package.

In the following, examples of a document review method according to apreferred embodiment of the invention will be described with regard tothe review of patent documents. These patent documents can already bestored locally on a users computing system 10 or be accessible via asearch system 16, such as the well known patent search systems providedby the European Patent Office (EPO) or Google, which allow a user toaccess content via their respective patent search services espacenet.comand google.com/patents. The EPO further provides the Open PatentServices (OPS) patent retrieval service, which can be used by a firstdata retrieval unit to retrieve a full patent document in its originalPDF format and/or by a second data retrieval unit to retrieve only thedescription and claims of a patent in XML format, for example.

The patent search process itself is well known and can be performed byusing, for example patent publication numbers and/or keywords. Patentdocument refers to any type of patent, such as design patent, (utility)patent and utility model. The term patent document or patent shallinclude issued/granted patents, patent applications as filed and/orpublished by a patent office. The term patent according to the preferredembodiments shall also include a draft of a patent application to befiled, which is still under preparation by a patent attorney and/orinventor.

FIG. 2 shows a patent document 20 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,789,789) obtainedafter conducting a patent search as indicated above. A first documentsection 21 of patent document 20 is displayed in a first display window22 having a border 24 which forms the perimeter of the browser window,i.e. first display window 22. The first document section 21 comprises amain page showing a drawing of the patent document 20 under review andfurther includes thumbnail view of the remaining pages of the patentdocument 20 on the left hand side, which may not overlap the firstdisplay window 22 as shown in FIG. 2. The patent document 20 may bepresented in its original PDF format within the first display window 22,which may be a browser window by using scalable vector graphics (SVG) asis well known to the skilled person (other known techniques can also beused and are readily apparent to the skilled person). Within the border24 of the first display window 22 a second display window 26 is arrangedoverlapping the first document section 21. The second display window 26is, relative to the first display window 22, small in size in order notto overlap too much of the first document section 21. The second displaywindow 26 is shown as arranged within the border of the first displaywindow 22 by having two sides of the border of the second display window26 overlapping the border of the first display window 22 and theremaining portion of the second display window 26 overlapping the firstdisplay window 22. This is only one way of arranging the second displaywindow 26 within the border of the first display window 22, since thesecond display window 26 is re-arrangeable, the second display window 26can also be arranged within the first display window 22 without havingany overlap between the borders of the first and second display windows22 and 26.

The second display window 26 is preferably re-sizeable and alsore-arrangeable according to user preferences. The second display window26 may be configured as a floating window, so that even if the userconducts a scrolling operation in the first display window 22, thesecond display window 26 will remain visible at all times. The seconddisplay window 26 can be hidden, if the user clicks on the close button27 thereof. In one embodiment, the second display window 26 can be movedto any desired location within the first display window 22, i.e. withinthe border 24. The second display window 26 can be re-sized by agrab-and-drag operation of the user as is indicated by the known bottomright hand corner symbol of the second display window 26 (the diagonallines).

A search term input line 28 may be provided within the second displaywindow 26 as part of a search functionality implemented by the searchfunction module of the review system of this embodiment, which allowssearching within the electronic document, such as the description,claims and abstract of the patent 20 displayed in the first displaywindow 22.

The user reviewing the first document section 21 and trying tounderstand the teaching thereof can conduct a search by utilizing thesearch functionality provided in the second display window 26.

The first document section 21 shows a rather complex figure with variousparts referenced by so called reference signs. The user trying to obtainan understanding of the various parts displayed in the first documentsection 21 utilizes the second display window 26 to conduct a search.For example, if the user wants to learn more about the part referencedby reference sign “88”, the user will input “88” into the search inputline 28 and initiate the search by clicking on search button 32.

FIG. 3 shows the result of the search, which indicates that two hitswere found. These hits are presented as a second document section 34within a first result window 36 and a third document section 38 within asecond result window 40. Each result window 36 and 40 is—similar to thesecond display window 26 as explained above—also re-sizeable by agrab-and-drag operation as indicated by the symbol in the bottom righthand corner of each result window 36, 40.

The first result window 36 shows only a first set of characters of thesecond document section 34 retrieved in response to said search. Thefirst set of characters already indicate to the user that the searchterm “88” is referenced as “posts” in this patent document 20. This isconfirmed by the second result window 40, which also only shows a firstset of characters of the third document section 38 initially. If theuser wants to review the remaining characters of the second documentsection 34, i.e. the remaining text portion included in the first resultwindow 36 the user can re-size the first result window 36 accordingly(e.g by the grab-and-drag function). The grab-and-drag operation ofresizing the first result window 36 has the advantage that the user canincrease the window only as much as deemed necessary and thus showadditional amount of characters to the extent necessary.

FIG. 4 shows that the size of the first result window 36 has beenincreased in response to user action. By doing so, more characters ofthe second document section 34 have been made visible to the user. It isnow possible to obtain an even better understanding of the term inquestion. The user not only learns the meaning of the technical partassociated with the search term “88” (i.e. “posts”), but also withinwhat context it is disclosed and described in the patent document 20. Asis evident from comparing FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, the search operation anduser action in re-sizing the first result window 36 does not alter thefirst document section 21 displayed in the first display window 22. Putdifferently, the user can stay focused on the first document section 21during the entire search operation and does not have to scroll away fromthe complex figure in order to obtain an understanding thereof. Evenre-sizing of the first result window 36 does not affect the firstdocument section 21. Instead the second result window 40 is displaceddownwards within the second display window 26 in response to increasingthe size of the first result window 36.

Should the user not have obtained a satisfactory understanding of theterm “88” and need further text of the section within which the seconddocument section was found, the user can obtain the text prior (orafter) to the text passage currently being displayed in the first resultwindow 36 by clicking on the dots “ . . . ” in the beginning (or at theend) of the first result window 36. This will retrieve a predefined setof characters of the text passage of the patent that is disclosed before(or after) the second document section. Thus, the document sectionsdisclosed in each result window are excerpts taken from the patentabstract, description and/or claims of the patent under review. The usermay also obtain detailed information about the exact page and/or lineand/or paragraph number from which the text was retrieved bycorresponding indication (not shown) within the second display window.

In one embodiment, each result window allows addition of the users owncomments and remarks by selecting editing function through clicking theedit button 42. Such user added comments within the result window can beprovided in a font style and/or size different from the font styleand/or size of the retrieved document sections.

The user can also add the content of the result window as an annotationto the original document displayed in the first display window 22 due tothe provision of an annotation unit of the review system. By clickingthe button 44 the content of the first result window 36 is added to thefirst display window 22 as an annotation 45 (see FIG. 5). The annotation45 can be added by merging the content of the first-result window 36 tothe document displayed in the first display window 22 using any suitabletechnique or programming language. For example, when the patent document20 is in a .pdf format, the content of the first-result window 36 can beprovided as a “second layer” by using XML javascript. The “second layer”is then merged with the patent document 20 when the user downloads theedited document to their computing system 10 for printing the patentdocument 20. Thus, the annotation 45 can consist of the second documentsection 34 and/or the user's comments.

FIG. 5 shows the annotation 45 created as explained with respect to FIG.4 above. FIG. 5 further shows that the user in his further review hasre-arranged the second display window 26 in order to have it closelyaligned with a particular section of interest. After having the term“88” reviewed and understood, the user now focuses on the term “80” andhas placed the second display window 26 adjacent to this reference sign.Upon searching for this search term the results again, are displayed inthe second display window 26.

In response to the search several results were found, each of which isdisplayed in a separate result window 46 a, b, c within said seconddisplay window 26. It is evident from the second display window 26 thatseveral results were obtained in response to the search, because thesecond display window 26 now has a scroll bar 48. Thus all resultwindows are not displayed in FIG. 5. In order to save screen space, notall result windows are displayed at once. The user can choose to havethem all displayed by increasing the size of the second display window26 accordingly, or the user can use the scroll bar 48 to review theremaining result windows. As explained with regard to FIG. 4, the usercan see more of each document section displayed within each resultwindow 46 a, b, c in order to obtain a clear understanding of the term“80” and the context within which it is disclosed in the patent, if userchooses to increase the size of said result window.

It is evident that each result window is independent from the otherresult window, so that the user can choose to close a specific resultwindow in case the result displayed therein is not considered useful bythe user anymore.

It is obvious that the user can search for words and/or phrases withinthe patent 20 and is not limited to searching for reference numbersonly. Thus, the user while reviewing the figure of the patent 20 couldsearch for a particular phrase, word or the like to learn more about theteaching of the patent 20. For example the user could search for “claim”in order to have the claims show up in the second display window andreview the patent claims while reviewing the figures in the firstdisplay window.

The search function module is for example linked with XML (or HTML orsimilar format) version of the patent document 20 in order to increasethe download speed and thus improve overall usability. Thus, rather thansearching within a PDF version and getting excerpts from the PDF to bepresented within each result window, the second display window is linkedwith XML (or HTML or similar format) version of the patent text. Thefirst display window 22 can thus display the patent in a first dataformat, in this case PDF version of the patent 20, while the seconddisplay window 26 uses a different data format (XML and/or HTML orsimilar) in order to conduct the search and retrieve the search result.

From the above it follows that the user of this preferred embodimentdoes not have to leave the page currently displayed in the first displaywindow. This provides a significant advantage in maintaining the users'concentration level throughout the entire patent document reviewprocess. Contrary to prior art methods mentioned earlier, no jumping orbrowsing away to other sections of the patent is necessary in order toobtain a deep understanding of the document section under review.

The ability to re-arrange the second display window 26 relative to thefirst display window 22 provides the advantage that the user can alignthe second display window 26 closely to the content of interest withinthe first window. This aids in maintaining the users concentrationlevel, because the user can stay focused on said content of interestwhile obtaining further information about said content of interest byretrieving the text portion within the second display window 26. Notonly does the user not have to jump to a different document section, itis even possible to keep the users eye movement at a minimum during thereview of the content of interest. This is important during the reviewof complex documents, in particular during the review of complex patentfigures.

FIG. 6 shows a further preferred embodiment of the method and systemaccording to the invention. The figure shows a first display window 22 adisplaying a first document section 21 a and a further document section50. The further document section 50 may be controllable independentlyfrom the first document section 21 a, so that different sections of thepatent under review can be displayed in the further document section 50.The further document section 50 provides a visible view of a selectedsection of the patent document 20. The first display window 22 adisplaying the first document section 21 and the further documentsection 50 can be accomplished by passing signals to the monitor 8. Inone embodiment, a suitable programming language, such as HTML code ispassed to the processor 2, which then generates and passes video signalsto the monitor 8.

In this example, the user has aligned the second display window 26 aclosely to a section of interest in the first document section 21 a. Inclaim 1 of the patent 20 under review, the user wants to obtain a betterunderstanding of the term “outlet” as defined therein (in the lastparagraph of claim 1 of the patent under review). The user inserts theterm “outlet” in the search line of the second display window 26 a andconducts the search.

The search results are presented in results windows within the seconddisplay window 26 a in a similar manner as described with regard to theprevious embodiment. After retrieving the results the user now learnedthat the reference sign corresponding to the search term “outlet” is“80”, as is evident from the result windows as shown in FIG. 6.

Without the need to alter the content of the first document section 21a, the user can control the further document section 50 and retrieve thefigure showing the reference sign “80”. As is clear from FIG. 6, theuser can during this review process maintain his view on the claim, thefurther explanations provided in the second display window 26 a and therelating figure of the patent under review. This enables the user toreview the patent efficiently. In particular, each of the section 50,second display window 26 a and first section 21 a is separatelycontrollable.

Once the review according to any of the above described embodiments iscompleted, the user may have an annotated document as an end result (incase the user used the annotation function as described). The user maychoose to either save an electronic copy of the annotated document, orif desired, print out the annotated copy. It is also possible for theuser to share his reviewed version with another user via the system.This allows collaboration within teams and further increasesproductivity. Of course, the system also allows the user to continue hisreview later and thus allows for saving the annotated document for laterreview. Moreover, annotations tools provided in the first display window(not shown) may be used to annotate the first document section.

It is evident that the described method and system enables the user tostay focused on the document section currently under his review in thefirst display window, i.e. the user does not have to “leave” thedocument section in the first display window 22, 22 a in order forhim/her to obtain a better understanding thereof. The second displaywindow 26 not only allows input of search terms, but more importantly itpresents the result of the search within this second window 26. Thesearch results are provided in separate result windows, which can bere-sized to show even more of the text passage within which the searchterm was found. It is possible to provide further display windowssimilar to the second display window according to another preferredembodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 7a and 7b show a further embodiment of the electronic documentreview system and method. Similar to the previous embodiment, a firstdisplay window 22 b and a second display window 26 b are shown in FIG.7a , whereas the first display window 22 b displays a first documentsection 21 b (with the thumbnails windows hidden). The search term inputline 28 b indicates that a search in view of the search term “10” hasbeen conducted. The search results are displayed in the search list,which comprises three result windows 52 a to 52 c. In this embodimentthe annotation function and edit function are first displayed uponexpanding the size of the result window 52 a, 52 b or 52 c, which isbest seen in FIG. 7 b.

FIG. 7b shows the result window 52 a with increased size and arrangementof the annotation function 44 b and edit function 42 a at the bottom ofthe result window 52 a. FIGS. 7a, 7b also give an example of using anembodiment of the method and system for reviewing an electronic documenton a tablet computer device, such as an iPad®. The second display window26 b can be closed by clicking/touching on the tab with the magnifyingglass arranged on the left hand side of the second display window 26 bas shown in FIGS. 7a and 7b . It is clear from FIGS. 7a, 7b that afurther tab with a magnifying glass icon is arranged at the left side ofthe first display window 22 b. If the user clicks/touches this secondtab with the magnifying glass icon the second display window is openedby being arranged on the left hand side of the first display window 22b, while at the same time the currently shown (right hand side) seconddisplay window 26 b is automatically closed.

FIG. 8 shows a further embodiment of the document review method andsystem, in which the second display window 26 c has a result listcomprising three result windows. The result windows where obtained inview of a search with the search term “17”. The result window 54 shows afirst set of characters of the second document section obtained in viewof the search. In order to show (an increased amount of characters of)the total amount of characters the user can select result window 54 andin reaction to such selection an expanded result window 54 a is created.The enlarged result window 54 a is pointing to the result window 54 andthereby maintains a link 56 to the second display window 26 c. Theenlarged result window 54 a is by default arranged close to the upperborder of the first display window 22 c, so as to ensure that the viewof the first document section 21 c is not influenced. Thus it is not bydefault arranged at the same horizontal level as its correspondingresult window 54. The same holds true for every other result window 54and its corresponding enlarged result window (not shown). Despite thisthe user has still the option to re-arrange the enlarged result window54 a relative to the first display window 22 c, since it is alsoconfigured as a re-arrangeable enlarged result window 54 a. Inparticular, the enlarged result window 54 a is also re-arrangeablerelative to the second display window 26 c.

The link 56 between the enlarged result window 54 a and the resultwindow 54 can be configured such that it is only visible if the userscrolls over the enlarged result window 54 a or the result window 54.Thus, this ensures that the first display section's 21 c visibility iskept at a maximum level. Depending on the arrangement of the seconddisplay window 26 c the enlarged result window 54 a to be created couldalso be arranged close to the bottom, left or right hand side border ofthe first display window 22 c. In other words, the method and systempreferably arranges the enlarged result window(s), e.g., enlarged resultwindow 54 a close to the frame/border line of the first display window22 c as the system is optimized to utilize as much white space of thefirst display window 22 c as possible. Generally, the portion next tothe border has an empty margin or at least discloses non-criticalcontent (e.g. a page, line number, column number or similar). Thus thesystem utilizes this in order to avoid any overlap between any criticalwritten/shown content of the first document section 21 c and a possibleenlarged result window, when initially creating the re-arrangeableenlarged result window. Any additional enlarged result window that iscreated will utilize the remaining white space.

FIG. 9a shows a further embodiment, which is similar to the previousembodiments in that it also displays a first display window 22 d andsecond display window 26 d. The second display window 26 d has a resultlist with several result windows that each discloses a document section,whereas the first result window is identified by numeral 62.

FIG. 9b shows that the size of the first result window 62 has beenincreased. Increasing the first result window 62 can be conducted byeither clicking the button 64 or grabbing the corner 66 and draggingsaid corner 66 such that the first result window 62 is increased. Incase the user desires to continue reading in the full text where thesecond document section displayed within the first result window 62ends, the user may click on a specifically foreseen button (not shown)next to the first result window 62. By clicking such button the documentsection corresponding to the second document section of the first resultwindow 62 of the full text of the patent under review is loaded withinthe second display window 26 d according to this embodiment.

FIG. 9c shows the full text of the document under review with theportion of the text corresponding to the text portion of the firstresult window 62 as underlined. The user may now scroll up and/or downand read more of the text. In order to clearly indicated to the user,which section corresponded to the first result window 62 result, suchsection is shown as being highlighted (in this embodiment underlined).The user can now continue reading in the entire text until he hasobtained a sufficient understanding of the feature of interest. As isevident from FIGS. 9a to 9c , all of the described user operations donot affect the first document section 21 d (neither the main figure northe thumbnail windows thereof). No “jumping away” from the firstdocument section 21 d, as would have been the case in the prior art, isconducted upon interacting with the results in the second display window26 d. The user can close the full text review and return to the displayof the result windows at any time by clicking a respective close button(shown as an x in the top right hand corner of the second displaywindow).

FIG. 9d shows that alternatively the full text section can be providedin a third display window 70 if desired. Also this window 70 is afloating, re-sizeable and re-arrangeable giving the user maximumflexibility when studying the first document section 21 d in the firstdisplay window 22 d. Thus, even if the user scrolls within the firstdisplay window 22 d, the third display window 70 remains in front andvisible at all times.

It follows that the preferred methods and systems according to theinvention enable a more cost efficient and productive review of complexdocuments, such as patent documents. The user can electronically reviewan electronic document and reduce print outs of the document underreview. Long and/or complex documents are reviewed easily and a highconcentration level of a user is maintained at all time. A significantamount of time in reviewing such complex documents can be saved, whichalso has a positive effect on the energy consumption of the computingsystem used.

Tests conducted by patent professionals have also shown that significantamount of time can be saved by using the method and system according tothe preferred embodiments of the invention. Compared to reviewing apatent document with known systems (such as espacenet) productivity ofthe patent professional was increased significantly.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have beendisclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art willappreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions arepossible, without departing from the scope of the invention as disclosedin the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic document review method forreviewing an electronic document by at least one user, said methodcomprising the steps of: Displaying at least a first document section ofsaid electronic document in a first display window; Displaying at leasta second document section of said electronic document in a seconddisplay window; Arranging said second display window so that said seconddisplay window is arranged within the border of the first display windowand such that, while open, said second display window stays in front ofthe first display window and the first document section is visible inthe first display window; and Providing a search functionality having asearch input line within said second display window; Creating at leasttwo result windows within said second display window in response to saidsearch, a first one of the result windows including a second documentsection displayed within the first one of the result windows, and asecond one of the result windows including a third document sectiondisplayed within the second one of the result windows, said seconddocument section including at least a part of a first sentence of saidelectronic document that is not a part of the first document section ofsaid electronic document, said third document section including at leasta part of a second sentence of said electronic document that is not apart of the first document section of said electronic document, whereinthe first document section is configured to remain unaltered duringinteraction by a user with the display of the search in said seconddocument section.
 2. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising: Increasing the size of at least one of the result windows bya user and, upon increasing the size, an increased number of charactersof the total amount of characters of the second document section aredisplayed.
 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:Displaying a first set of characters of the total amount of charactersof said second document sections in said result windows in response tosaid search, wherein upon increasing the size of at least one of saidresult windows by a user further characters of said total amount ofcharacters of the second document section are displayed within saidresult window.
 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:Creating said second display window as floating window, preferably arearrangable floating window.
 5. The method according to claim 1,further comprising Retrieving said first document section for display inthe first display window in a first data format; and Retrieving saidsecond document section for display in said second display window in asecond data format different from the first data format.
 6. Anelectronic document computer review computing system for reviewing anelectronic document by at least one user, said computing systemcomprising: a processor; an input device connected to said processor forcommunicating user inputs to the processor; a monitor connected to saidprocessor for displaying the electronic document; and a non-transitorycomputer readable medium linked to the processor and storing processorexecutable instructions that cause the processor to: (a) display on themonitor at least a first display window displaying at least a firstdocument section of said electronic document, said first display windowhaving a border; (b) display on the monitor at least a second displaywindow displaying at least a second document section of said electronicdocument; (c) arranging said second display window so that said seconddisplay window is located within the border of the first display windowand such that, while open, said second display window stays in front ofthe first display window and the first document section is visible inthe first display window; (d) display a search term input lineconfigured to receive a search term from the input device, the searchterm input line within said second display window, and conduct a searchof the electronic document with the search term, wherein the processorcauses the monitor to display a plurality of result windows arrangedwithin said second display window in response to said search, wherein atleast a second document section is displayed in a first one of theresult windows, and at least a third document section is displayed in asecond one of the result windows of said second display window inresponse to a search conducted utilizing the search term input line andincludes at least a part of a sentence of said electronic document thatis not a part of the first document section of said electronic document;and wherein the first document section is configured to remain unalteredduring interaction by a user with the display of the search in saidsecond document section.
 7. The system according to claim 6, wherein theresult windows are re-sizeable and shows an increased number ofcharacters of the total amount of characters of the second documentsection upon increasing its size.
 8. The system according to claim 6wherein said second display window is a floating window, preferably arearrangable floating window.
 9. The system according to claim 6,wherein the processor executable instructions include a first dataretrieval unit and a second data retrieval unit, that when executed bythe processor, cause the processor to: the first data retrieval unitretrieves said at least a first document section in a first data formatfor display in said first display window, and the second data retrievalunit retrieves said at least a second document section in a second dataformat different from the first data format.
 10. A non-transitorycomputer readable-medium comprising processor executable instructionsthat when executed by a processor cause a processor to: Display at leasta first document section of said electronic document in a first displaywindow; Display at least a second document section of said electronicdocument in a second display window; and Arrange said second displaywindow so that said second display window is arranged within the borderof the first display window and such that, while open, said seconddisplay window stays in front of the first display window; Provide asearch functionality having a search input line within said seconddisplay window; and Display in said second display window, at least tworesult windows within said second display window in response to saidsearch, a first one of the result windows including a second documentsection displayed within the first one of said result windows, a secondone of the result windows including a third document section displayedwithin the second one of said result windows said second documentsection including at least a part of a first sentence of said electronicdocument that is not a part of the first document section of saidelectronic document, said third document section including at least apart of a second sentence of said electronic document that is not a partof the first document section of said electronic document; wherein thefirst document section is configured to remain unaltered duringinteraction by a user with the display of the search in said seconddisplay window.
 11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim10, further comprising processor executable instructions that whenexecuted by a processor cause the processor to: Increase the size of theresult windows and, upon increasing the size, an increased number ofcharacters of the total amount of characters of the second documentsection are displayed.
 12. The non-transitory computer readable mediumof claim 10, further comprising processor executable instructions thatwhen executed by a processor cause the processor to: Retrieve said firstdocument section for display in the first display window in a first dataformat; and Retrieve said second document section for display in saidsecond display window in a second data format different from the firstdata format.